


The Muse

by Alona



Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 14:06:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15865125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alona/pseuds/Alona
Summary: A thief has an unexpected encounter.





	The Muse

Valentine ought to have listened to her mother, and her friends, and her ex, and really practically everyone, and got a nice, legal day job. If she hadn't decided that the life of a part-time criminal was a better – read: more glamorous and productive of unique life experiences – choice for an aspiring writer than admin assistant, she wouldn't have been here now, trying to rob the same private collection as _the_ Sophie Devereaux, who was a legend, and, radiant in champagne-colored silk, even more absurdly beautiful than the stories made her sound. 

"We can split the take!" Valentine babbled, awestruck. "You can take seventy – eighty – what – what's that face? D-do I have something stuck in my teeth? I wasn't expecting to – "

"Who's that?"

Sophie turned. Valentine, feeling like a bird freed from a cobra's stare, sagged against the case of porcelain pottery whose alarm she'd been disarming when Sophie had found her. There was a man at the top of the stairs, dressed in evening wear; with him standing against the light slanting up from the party below Valentine couldn't see much of his face, but she was convinced he was glaring at her. 

"She's Valentine," Sophie said, and Valentine tried to remember telling her, "and she's simply adorable, and she's going to steal the Meissens for us, Nate, isn't that perfect? That's much better than hiding them!" 

"Soph, we need – "

"Darling, I know." She beamed at Valentine. "You'll leave us the ewer, won't you? Don't bother your head about why." 

Valentine didn't understand what was happening, but Sophie Devereaux had called her adorable, and she was smiling at her. Valentine nodded once, twice. 

Sophie had taken Nate by the arm and was giving him an extremely winning look. He met her eyes with a stoical sort of smolder for longer than Valentine would have believed possible. Then his expression softened and his head bowed in surrender. 

"We don't subsidize thieves," he tried. 

Sophie laughed effervescently. "Of course we do, haven't you paid attention?"

"I'm not," Valentine volunteered. 

They both looked at her as though they'd forgotten she was there, which didn't seem fair when they were arguing about her. 

"I'm not a thief, actually. I'm a writer. I just need the money."

There was a pause, and then Sophie cooed, "See? Adorable!" 

Nate rolled his eyes heavenwards and gave a gesture with his free hand. "All right, go. Hardison can take care of security for her. And now, Countess Zlata, what say we head back to the dance floor and get ourselves some alibis while your new friend does her stuff?"

In a charming Eastern European accent, Sophie said, "The Countess Zlata hates Mr. Winters." 

"Oh, come on. You can't act like you hate me while we're dancing?" He leaned closer, brushed Sophie's hair back from her face, and whispered into her ear. And stepped back in time to take her hand before she could slap him. 

"I will get you for that, Mr. Winters." With a lingering backwards look she headed towards the stairs, letting her hand slip out of his. With one foot on the second step, she turned back. Dropping the accent, she called, "Oh, Valentine! Do send me your first novel. I'll blurb it! Thanks, you're a star!" And she was gone. 

"Wow," breathed Valentine. 

"You have no idea," Nate told her fervently, and then he vanished down the stairs after Sophie. 

It was just as well that whoever or whatever a Hardison was could work magic; Valentine's mind wasn't on the job at all. She'd just found a kernel for her first novel. It was going to be a good one, she could feel it. This time she would even finish it. 

She'd decided, though, that Nate should be a woman in it.


End file.
